Everything about potatoes for 2021

[Biobomb]

The 2021 season will soon start. What varieties will you order? Will you test any news? What quantities? Tubers pre-germinated or not? Have you found a universal variety? Will you use tubers that you harvested in 2020 at home? Your favorite variety for French fries?

Your soil: how do you prepare it? Distances and depth of plants? Date of planting? No ridging or several? Watering, if heat wave or not? Etc ...

[Rajqawee]

We smell the potato passion

In Corsica, I could try 3 rotations per year (but this year, I would have lost! It froze several times in Ajaccio and therefore my autumn + winter rotation would have burst).

I used in particular the culture of PDT to start the new plots, because we will bring important quantities of OM to them, and in addition we will "break up" the soil at harvest, therefore by remixing the OM to the soil, probably. My "protocol" was this:

-When I harvest, I directly transplant the very small PDTs in the next plot (so I don't have to peel small ones) as well as the PDTs which have sprouted, if I have any at this time. I don't sweat the varieties, I planted what I bought to eat that sprouted.
-I make a small hole in the ground and place my germinated PDT there or not (but like a 5cm hole, no more)
-I water if necessary (for example for a second rotation that we would start in August)
-the spacing is "yeah pretty much like that" (4/5 PDT per m²)
- we cover with various MOs, what we have on hand
-I water very little when the leaves grow, rather more during the growing phase (and suddenly in Corsica, the culture is more relevant, I find, from August to November OR on a January-June attempt, because otherwise, you have to water a lot in the summer when it does not rain)
-I put on a layer of MO when the feet exceed 20cm
-after 5/6 months, when it dries up, I harvest (between 20 and 30kg per m² over 3 rotations). Most of the tubers develop in the MO + layer over the first 20 cm of the soil

Here ! Planting, covering, and harvesting work great with kids, since you don't have to be too thorough, and it's a scavenger hunt at the end.

To talk about the calendar again, I tend to really prefer to choose a period when I can do nothing. Including do not water! This must be quite feasible in many regions, by agreeing to have PDTs later. Typically a plantation in August in an area where thunderstorms start, I think it can go pretty well if the cold doesn't start too early.

[Did67]

I have not yet defined my strategy.

I have a lot of clean "plants", some of which unfortunately already have viruses - so I watch this carefully. A video coming soon, so I can't throw them away !!!

Two points that we don't pay enough attention to, in my opinion:

a) precisely, this question of virosis in the re-use / exchange of plants

It seems that sometimes the varieties are sufficiently "stable" that they can be sown. So harvesting seeds and checking for stability is one of the things that intrigues me. What is certain is that viruses are generally transmitted much less by seeds. We can therefore "regenerate" varieties.

Unfortunately, intended for vegetative propagation, varieties are normally not "stable". But on the German net, a YouTuber claims that she has obtained almost identical (and healthy!) Plants.

b) a trait that is generally skipped, and for which there are however considerable differences, is the storability: some varieties are very dormant (so they do not germinate before April / May), others the are very few and start to sprout around Christmas! A priori; there is no simple link between "precocity" and "dormancy".

Some descriptions "online" with search engines, give this character ...

http://www.fiches.arvalis-infos.fr/fich ... variete=10

[Forhorse]

I plant and cultivate in a "traditional" way (turned over, ridging, ...) because after a few tries of other alternative methods (cardboard, placing the plants on the ground and covering it with compost, etc ...) I have frankly never had results.
I plant quite late for the region where I live (often at the end of May) because otherwise the harvest period arrives too early and the tubers do not keep (often in December they are so germinated that they are no longer edible)
suddenly I have to water quickly enough because here from mid-June until the end of September it's almost drought (except rotten years or it's the opposite)
if I don't water I have nothing, or else micro-tubers ...

Variety level I see with what I find (and what remains ...) in the garden center where I buy my plants. And since I am unable to remember from year to year what I have planted, I cannot find a variety that works in my house.

I tried a year to replant the rest of the harvest from the previous year, it didn't work out much, but it wasn't a great year and it was before I realized that anyway I had no choice but to water regularly to have something ...
I would try again on occasion.

EDIT: Ah yes and strange fact, I have never managed to have a plant that makes fruits to try to collect seeds. I have the flowers, but often it aborts, and when I have a few plants where the fruit starts to form, it never reaches maturity. I must be missing something, but I never looked into it.

[Doris]

-I water very little when the leaves grow, rather more during the growing phase (and suddenly in Corsica, the culture is more relevant, I find, from August to November OR on a January-June attempt, because otherwise, you have to water a lot in the summer when it does not rain)

January potatoes, did you water them very little? Mine last year worked well like that until April, after that it was seriously ugly. Afterwards, thanks to the thick layer of hay, it was not over-watering either, but as a reminder I watered about every three days with plenty of water.
Otherwise August it can be interesting, but I didn't do it, because with my January plants I had our annual consumption, especially since we took advantage of our production from the early stage, by harvesting according to our needs a little while leaving the foot in place.

[Rajqawee]

-I water very little when the leaves grow, rather more during the growing phase (and suddenly in Corsica, the culture is more relevant, I find, from August to November OR on a January-June attempt, because otherwise, you have to water a lot in the summer when it does not rain)

January potatoes, did you water them very little? Mine last year worked well like that until April, after that it was seriously ugly. Afterwards, thanks to the thick layer of hay, it was not over-watering either, but as a reminder I watered about every three days with plenty of water.
Otherwise August it can be interesting, but I did not do it, because with my January plants I had our annual consumption, especially since we took advantage of our production from the early stage, by harvesting according to our needs a little while leaving the foot in place.

Regarding the January-June rotation, I generally didn't need to water, except maybe once or twice in May / June, but usually not. In Corsica, it often rains a lot (but not many days! Hence the advantage of a soil that stores ...) in spring. If there is heavy rains at the end of May typically, the reserve can be filled until mid-June and therefore for the PDT rotation we do not need to water. Usually in April the ETP was not enough for me to need to water (except maybe as said, once a month if there are 3 weeks without rain, but it does not happen if often).
For the August rotation, the interest can be quite simply to increase the production if you have a small area, but especially once again to take advantage of the periods of rain to avoid watering. With a somewhat more hardy strain, which will therefore grow in potentially depressing temperatures from October, I think that would be relevant in many places.

[Doris]

OK understood. Yes, at home too I could do a rotation in August, it works well here, I didn't do it for reasons explained in my previous post, in fact I extend the production time by taking what I have I need from the potatoes stage. So my plants lasted eight months, and I could have gone even further, watering more, which I didn't, because we had enough.
This year I think I would do the same for the bigger ones, and maybe I make a few plants in August, to have potatoes longer in the winter, because in my climate the cellar or the garage is too hot to keep them for a long time without them germinating.

[Rajqawee]

OK understood. Yes, at home too I could do a rotation in August, it works well here, I didn't do it for reasons explained in my previous post, in fact I extend the production time by taking what I have I need from the potatoes stage. So my plants lasted eight months, and I could have gone even further, watering more, which I didn't, because we had enough.
This year I think I would do the same for the bigger ones, and maybe I make a few plants in August, to have potatoes longer in the winter, because in my climate the cellar or the garage is too hot to keep them for a long time without them germinating.

Regarding storage, I was not producing enough to have this "problem"

That said, I still noticed that in a simple crate (box of reclaimed apples for example) covered with another cardboard (therefore, quite opaque), nothing had germinated, even in more than a month. .
My organic market gardener confirmed to me that the criterion is really light and that even "a little bit" makes them germinate (yes, it happens to germinate even at 20cm below the ground, that is to say!) And him kept them squarely in a small safe, 100% opaque.

[Biobomb]

I have a lot of clean "plants", some of which unfortunately already have viruses -

For a long time I have been growing potatoes, for 90% of commercial plants and the rest of the plants from my own production.
I make a strict selection for the 10%, the size between 5 and 10 cm.
Never had a virus infection! Tell me, what is it?,
They hold each other well June although at the end of June but they get a little soft.
At the end of summer I just sort them correctly before storing them in crates lined with newspaper to deprive them of light.
During this sorting I separate the tubers from those which will be taken as replants.

[Doris]

With the storage conditions that I can offer the potatoes, I managed to store them for five months without loss. Recently I sterilized the last ones and those which were well germinated, I put them under hay (30 cm for the moment, but this weekend I am adding another 20). To get some later in the year I'm going to play and on a plantation in August and maybe take another kind. In 2020 I put Spunta and Delicacy, if I am correctly informed, the Spunta is not so good to keep for a long time, in any case, it is the one that has germinated the most between the two. Spunta and Delicatesse are therefore already in place, and I would make a second plot with another type with long dormancy, which I will put in place at the end of February / beginning of March. When harvesting in August I would keep a few tubers of each to replant immediately.